I can’t remember the last time I touched money. We no longer need to and that seems significant. We keep more of our money in banks for less reward than ever and that seems stupid. Interest rates are worse that terrible. Effectively, by leaving our money in the bank we are losing money due to inflation. Our money is safe, atleast up to a certain amount, but the price we pay is that we become poorer. That is the opportunity cost of the modern banking system. Atleast that’s what Millennial see. It’s the price we pay for liquidity – the ability to instantaneously access our cash. But it needn’t be like that. The key to greater wealth if making our money work for us. Access to compounding interest is the smartest decision one can ever make. “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.” ― Albert Einstein But too few exploit it while too many pay the price. Things like Robinhood provide access to markets with the same liquidity as banks do for our cash. The risk of loses are obviously higher but so are the potential returns. Could a similar system evolve which provides the same liquidity for your cash but within the confines of a more stable financial model like and ETF? And then there is Bitcoin, Ethereum and every other ‘coin’. Money no longer has to physically exist to be valuable. Quantitive easing is another form of cash which never physically exists, but is completely different. And ‘coins’ don’t have to be tied to anything of real value. When the value of the dollar was detached from the gold standard fiat money achieved the same thing. And that is why they have value. But it’s also because they are anonymous and enable untraceable transactions. That is where their value is. Because Cryptocurrencies are a way to evade capital controls — you buy bitcoin and place them in an offshore ‘wallet’ then sell the them to a buyer in another country for foreign currency — they will always have a value so long as their are people who want their money out of a country or for their wealth to remain ‘anonymous’. The government have an extremely hard time tracking this down. To participate you have to be certain that there will be buyers for millions of $ worth of Bitcoin on the other end of the transaction. This is only assured with large network effects — this is why ‘Bitcoin’ and Ethereum are worth so much. In reality, higher valuations simply makes the transfer of large quantities of money more efficient. Bitcoin etc. is already an efficient means to evade taxes. I’ve read stories of entrepreneur selling companies for bitcoins in order to avoid the capital gains. That is a revolution. And that is what cryptocurrency can become. We no longer have to rely on governments to manage our currencies. That truly is a radical development — and it makes sense. Can you entrust you earnings and savings to the long term success of the country you live in? Should you? There is a growing argument to be made that the state should have no control over our money. That is what Cryptocurrecies and tokens allow. They remove the power of the state and give it to the people. As long as people perceive value in these new forms of currency they provide an effective store for your wealth outwith government control. That’s not to say they can’t impact the price. Unless it is a pyramid that all comes tumbling down On the brightside, our money couldn’t be devalued overnight by our country deciding to ‘print’ more cash through quantitative easing. I have multiple bank accounts on my phone, everything from traditional banking (RBS, Wells Fargo etc.), Modern Banking (Revolut), through to wallets for my ‘coins’. I can’t remember the last store I was in that didn’t take card. It’s not a big step to foresee the acceptance of bitcoin, or ‘tokens’. That’s effectively what customer reward cards already do. This is just the beginning. This is a revolution. This is the future. All I know is that I no longer need cash anymore. And I like it.
